KABUL – Afghan officials have claimed that the upsurge of atrocities ontheir land is a direct response to the Trump administration’s suspension ofaid for the Pakistani military.

The head of the Afghanistan’s intelligence service, NDS (NationalDirectorate of Security) Masoom Stanekzai, stated that these were deadlyattempts by the Pakistani backers of the insurgency to show they cannot besidelined.

A senior diplomat in Kabul, Majeed Qarar, said there was evidence that theequipment used in the attacks had been given by the Pakistani military toIslamist fighters in Kashmir as well as Afghanistan. He also claimed thatsome of it had been supplied by a firm in the UK.

Qarar tweeted: “The night vision goggles found with Taliban attackers in …ANA [Afghan National Army] base were military grade goggles (Not sold tothe public) procured by Pak[istan’s] army from a British company & supplied[to] Lashkar-e-Tayeeba in Kashmir & Taliban in Afghanistan.”

This follows statements by the NDS after the attack on the IntercontinentalHotel which killed 22 people, including 14 foreigners, that “the explosivematerials seized in the vehicle shows that the material is made inPakistan” and had been traced to a company based in Islamabad. InWashington, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “We callon Pakistan to immediately arrest or expel the Taliban’s leaders andprevent the group from using Pakistani territory to support its operations.In Afghanistan, where terrorists attacked the hotel in Kabul, such attackson civilians only strengthen our resolve to support our Afghan partners.”

The Afghan government also maintained there was Pakistani collusion in thesuicide bombing that used an ambulance, which resulted in 103 deaths.

Pakistan has denied the accusation. “The people and the government ofPakistan condemn the terrorist blast in Kabul and extend heartfeltcondolences to the families of those who lost their lives in thisreprehensible act,” said a foreign ministry spokesman. “Terrorism is notthe way forward.”